Improved sugar tablet for containing medicines



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY F. WIESEOK E, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVED SUGAR TABLET FOR CONTAINING MEDICINE S.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 36,816, dated October 28, 1862.

To all whom it may concern:

Be. it known that I, HENRY FERDINAND WIESEGKE, of the city of- New York, in the county and State of New York, have in rented a new process of endowing sugar-crystals with a. healing power, thereby rendering the medicines delicate, agreeable to the taste, and easily digestible, and thus preserving the remedies in their original virtue and power with more certainty than could be done by any other means or in any other form; and

I do hereby declare that the following is afull mixtures (solutions) of the freshly-expressed juices of plants with alcohol, whose natural (original) remedial power has remained an changed because theyhave not been influenced by heat, decoetion, distillation, of any similar process. y

The process ofinanufacturing my tablets is the following: In the first place a quantity of pure sugar is converted into fine powder and then moistenedwith a weak solution of gum-arabic, so that it can be formed into a dough or paste, which is then rolled to the proper thickness. Stamps provided with the suitable numbers are then impressed into this dough and tablets thereby formed or cut out bearing on their face corresponding numbers, the figures being raised in relief. These tab- 1ets, aft-er having been carefully dried, are placed in a warm concentrated solution of pure sugar, whieh,while cooling oii, deposits sugarcrystals on their entire surface. 4 the process of crystallization is completed the tablets are taken out and thoroughly dried.

As soon as To endow these tablets of sugar-crystals with a healing power they are placed in a transparent vessel so constructed as to be hermetically closed and rendered free of air to the greatest possible degree. The air is then exhausted while the tablets are yet warm, their capillary interstices beingthen most expanded.

A sufiieient quantity of the suitable alcoholature is now admitted into the vessel to cover the tablets placed therein, whereby all capillary interstices of the sugar-crystals are impregnated and filled up. After this has been completed the air is again allowed to enter the vessel to facilitate the flowing off of the superfiuous alcoholature, the tablets are taken out' and sufficiently dried, being then fully completed.

The respective tablets are distinguished by four hundred and twelve dilferent numbers,

as they are designed to cure fourhundred and twelve various phases ,of'sickness, of which a full'descriptiou is given in a-work written by me and entitled Fountain of Health, for which reason the remedies thereindesignated with numbers correspond with the numbers of, those tablets which contain the suitable remedies.

The sugar tablets in crystal form are far superior for medicinal purposes to any other preparations of sugar-,not only because inthis form they are more digestible and agreeable to the taste, but more especially because they contain a countless number of capillary intersticesjwhich increase their inner area to an extraordinary degree, and by which means each tablet obtains the peculiar property of absorbingthe exact quantity requisite for a single dose of the alcoholature suitable for the case forwhich the tablet is intended. Furthermore, it is only in this manner that alcotwenty-five per cent. vegetable mucilage, and

fifty per cent. sugar, and have no coating of sugar-crystals. They are medicated in the following manner: Medicinal substances are mixed with (kneaded into) the dough. They. consist either of decoctions, extracts, sirups, or etheral oils whose original remedial power has been so much changed by the manner in which they have been prepared that two such compositions prepared in accordance with the same directions hardly ever produce the same effect. My tablets'of sugar-crystals, however, consist of ninety-nine per cent. pure sugar and one'per cent. gum-arabic mixed with it to facilitate their preparation in the first or primary form, which could then be crystallized. M oreover, the structure of their innerand outer form is entirely completed before they are brought in contact with the alcoholatures.

My tablets of sugar-crystals differ from the ordinary homoeopathic medicines, as well in substance as in shape, as these, without exception, consist either of tinctures and dilu tions, or of triturations, (produced by the mixture of medicinal substances with sugar of milk,) or of globules or pellets composed ofsugar-of milk-moistened with medicinal liquids for the sake only of facilitating the division of a single drop of these into as many fractions. a's-one may choose.

From what has been said it clearly follows that my. tablets of sugar-crystals widely differ from the ordinary compositions of sugar' on account of their new configuration and shape, as there exist no tablets of sugar-crystals, either in this country or in any foreigncountry, which bear' numbers increasing in the same ratio and corresponding with like numbers, wherewith in a medical work the various remedies for stated diseases have been designated. Moreover, their importance and utility, especially for the poorer and working classes of the pub1ic, are so much greater, because no one can make use of these remedies unless he has first been instructed by the contents of the above-mentioned book, and as the grant of Letters Patent for this invention cannot interfere with the interests 'of other parties it may naturally be expected that the public should receive the necessary protection to guard against any spurious and deleterious imitations of such valuable remedies. This necessary protection for my'invention might,

thenfilled up with alcoholatures, inasmuch as the contradictory decrees of different judges in similar cases would leaveitdoubtful whether a person does come under the penaltyof the laws who imitates a part of my invention-for example, the manufacture of my tablets of sugar-crystals bearing the numbers in figures of like material, while he leaves undone the other part of my inventi-onthat is, the impregnation of my tablets with alcoholaturesa thing, too, which, in the subject of my invention, would be d'iflicult to'prove, because the alcohol in time evaporates and leaves behind the remedial substance. I

' By-the application of the first process the article to bepaten ted already becomes a-manufacture, which could so remain and thus serve as'a confection. It is then, however, uncompleted because it does not possessany healing power, which it receives only through the application of the second process.

What I therefore claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is embraced in the following claims:

1. The manufacture of tablets of sugar-crystals bearing numbers in figures of like material.

2. The process which completes the manufacture and endows the tablets of sugar-crystals with a healing power by exhausting the air from their capillary interstices and then impregnating them with alcoholatures, (remedies in alcoholic form.)

HENRY FERD. WIESEOKE. Witnesses:

H. STOTARBAUM, FR. RAU. 

